


Everything I Do, I Do For You

by doriangay



Category: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Genre: Angst, Episode: s11e05 Mac & Dennis Move to the Suburbs, M/M, bed sharing, the pool filter... the chirping noise... it's all a metaphor!, this is just an excuse for me to talk about the metaphors in suburbs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-04
Updated: 2019-06-04
Packaged: 2020-04-08 00:18:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19095901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doriangay/pseuds/doriangay
Summary: It isn't you. You're falling now. You're swimming. This is not harmless. You are not breathing.- Richard Siken, The Dislocated Room“Hey, Dennis?” Mac said, shifting his attention away from the sky and looking down into the pool, “you know that thing you said about how, without the sounds of the city distracting you, one small thing can bother you so much more?“Yeah, man. And you still need to get that pool filter fixed.”





	Everything I Do, I Do For You

**Author's Note:**

> so i rewatched suburbs for the first time in like a month and it made me so crazy that i had to write this

It was well into the early hours of the morning when Dennis gave up on sleeping. He sat up in bed, stretching his arms and pushing his hair back from his sweat-slicked forehead, cursing the summer heat. Somewhere out in the yard, the pool filter was thrumming just loudly enough to make his head tighten and his skin itch - it had been twenty days since they’d moved in, twenty days of hellish, sleepless nights.

He wondered whether it would be worth it to wake Mac up; he’d be annoyed, sure, but he’d never denied Dennis late-night company before. Back when they were living in their old apartment, waking each other up in the middle of the night had just been part of their routine, no more out of the ordinary than eating dinner together, or having a movie night. Dennis’ chest ached when he thought of the ease with which they’d used to live in their old apartment, with just a few meters between their rooms. They still slept close together, with only a couple of walls separating them, but everything felt bigger in this new house - it was as though there was a rift between the two of them, and Dennis couldn’t begin to understand how to close it.

Pushing all thoughts of the past aside, Dennis stood up and wandered over to the window, opening it and breathing in the thick summer air; he’d heard that the air was supposed to be cleaner outside of the city, but it all felt the same to him.

 

A figure in the yard caught his eye - at first he thought he was imagining things, but as he squinted into the dark he realised what he was seeing. It was Mac. He was sat by the side of the pool with his feet dangling in the water, his head tilted upwards towards the sky; Dennis wanted to call out to him, but his throat closed up as he opened his mouth. He tried to remember the last time they’d spoken properly, remembering the silent dinners of the past few days. A bead of sweat dripped from his forehead into the windowsill and, somewhere in the depths of the house, the alarm chirped.

Dennis ran a hand through his damp hair and stepped away from the window, glancing at his clock. It was 2:45AM - he had four hours left to sleep before he needed to be up and leaving for work, by this point, he may as well not sleep at all and nap in the back office all day. The image of Mac sat alone by the pool clouded his mind and he closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose and sighing. He knew what he had to do, and he knew nothing good could possibly come of it.

 

It was eerily quiet in the yard, so quiet that Mac must have been able to hear Dennis coming from a mile off, but he didn’t turn around. Dennis sat himself down directly next to him and scooped a handful of cool water from the pool, splashing it on his face and sighing in relief.

“Hey, man.” He said, nudging Mac with his shoulder.

Mac’s head was turned away from him, but Dennis was sure he heard a mumbled “hey,” in response.

“Couldn’t sleep?”

There was a moment of silence that hung uncomfortably in the air before Mac turned to face Dennis. His eyes were bruised with the dark circles of insomnia, and Dennis was sure that there was an unnatural hint of redness to them.

“It’s too hot.” Mac said simply, his head tilting back up towards the sky, “and…” he trailed off, blinking in that slow was he always did when he was fending off sleep.

“And?”

Mac swallowed, “it’s nothing.”

“Okay.”

The silence fell back over them, and Dennis found himself longing to jump into the pool. It would feel so much better, he thought, if he could just submerge himself in the water and cool off completely. But he knew Mac would find it off-putting, so instead he swung his legs around and mirrored Mac, dipping his feet into the pool and watching as he created little waves; the water lapped at Mac’s calves and Dennis saw him shiver and shift anxiously.

“Hey, Dennis?” He said, shifting his attention away from the sky and looking down into the pool, “you know that thing you said about how, without the sounds of the city distracting you, one small thing can bother you so much more?”

“Yeah, man. And you still need to get that pool filter fixed.” Dennis narrowed his eyes and looked at the offending filter, which was humming a few meters away from them.

A small noise that Dennis couldn’t quite place escaped Mac’s throat, “yeah but, like, you were right.”

“Is this about that beeping - sorry -  _ chirping  _ sound you keep hearing?”

“Not really.”

Dennis was suddenly hyper-aware of Mac’s bare legs only inches away from his, of the way he was leaning away from him and avoiding his gaze. It hit him that Mac hadn’t touched him or been able to look him in the eye for weeks now. “Oh,” so that was what this was all about.

“Yeah.”

 

Unable to stop himself, Dennis reached out and put a hand on Mac’s shoulder. Mac stiffened slightly, then leaned into Dennis’ touch, softening as though every muscle in his body had given up. This was their normal. This was how so many nights back home - at their old apartment - had gone. Mac would come into Dennis’ room, upset about a dream he refused to describe, and hover by the door until Dennis took pity on him and pulled him into bed. There were no beds here, though, just a pool and the sky and Dennis’ hand resting on Mac’s shoulder.

“How do you deal with it?” Mac asked, folding and unfolding his hands in his lap, “like, how do you sleep when it gets so loud that it’s all you can hear?”

“I-”

Dennis wanted to give Mac the advice he deserved to hear. He wanted to tell him that it was all okay, and that he was going to help him. He wanted to tell him to drop the facade, to drop the metaphor and tell him in plain English that he’d been hearing the pool filter his whole life, and that he knew Dennis had been too.

But he just couldn’t do it, “I don’t. You know I haven’t been sleeping either, buddy. Maybe we should get the pool guy back in to take another look at the damn thing.”

“Oh.” Mac’s voice was very small, “right.”

Dennis looked down at the pool and saw his face staring back at him and realised, for the first time, that he looked even tireder than Mac. His face was sagging, and his eyes were sunken and hollow - a pit formed in his stomach and he looked away quickly, scrambling to pull his feet from the water and stand up. “Let’s go back to bed.” He said, turning away from Mac and walking towards the house.

  
  


It was somehow even hotter in the house than it was outside - neither of them had been able to figure out how to get the air conditioning working, and leaving the windows open for too long had invited in a dangerous amount of wasps, spiders and various other bugs. The air was almost too thick for Dennis to breathe, he looked over at Mac, who was staring blankly off into the distance, his mind somewhere far away.

“So,” Dennis said, “bed?”

It was a loaded question and Mac knew it. His eyes snapped to meet Dennis’ for the first time in weeks, and he nodded silently. Dennis smiled at the normality of it all - this was something he knew how to deal with.

But as they made their way upstairs, the chirping sound echoed through the house again, stopping Mac dead in his tracks.

“Did you hear that?” He said.

Dennis shook his head, something sick crawling beneath his skin, “no, what was it?”

“That- that goddamn,” Mac turned around, his eyes wild - he was raising his voice just a little too loud and Dennis winced, praying that the neighbours wouldn’t hear him and come snooping.

“Mac, c’mon, let’s just-”

“Dude, I can’t stay here any longer I’m- I’m going fucking crazy!” His voice was rising in pitch, and he was breathing faster and faster, “you don’t get it, it’s day in day out! Just fucking chirping constantly - it’s driving me nuts and, Dennis, it’s so goddamn lonely you don’t even know. You can’t hear it,  _ nobody  _ can hear it and it’s like, it’s just-”

Dennis’ heart hurt. He knew exactly how he felt, how isolated and confused and angry, “buddy…”

“Dennis,” there was a tremble in Mac’s voice, “you really don’t hear it?”

 

In Dennis’ head he did the right thing and closed the gap between them, pressing his lips against Mac’s for the first time in over a year. In Dennis’ head, Mac’s mouth was soft and warm and his arms wrapped around Dennis’ back as he sighed into the kiss, letting the resentment and anger of the past few weeks melt away in a matter of seconds. In Dennis’ head, this was the antidote to everything that was wrong with the both of them.

But, back in the real world, Dennis shrugged and looked down at his feet. He didn’t have to answer for Mac to understand exactly what he meant to say:  _ “Of course I can hear it, I’ve always heard it, and I hate it just as much as you do.” _

Mac pressed his head against a wall, his shoulders sagging in defeat, “what are we gonna do, Dennis?” 

“Hey, baby, c’mon,” Dennis said gently, the old pet name slipping from his lips without permission, “one more week in this place, and then we can go back home. Things’ll be better there, you’ll see.”

“Will they?”

_ No, they won’t _ . “Yeah, man, of course they will!” Dennis leant forward to tug at Mac’s arm, pulling them both towards Mac's bedroom.

 

Mac followed him all the way to his bed, not saying a word as Dennis pulled him towards the bed and guided him down into it.

"I'll take the day off work tomorrow," Dennis said softly, his hands lingering on Mac's arm, "we can go do something, get out of the house for a while.”

"No, dude, you should go-"

"The dog can come too, if he wants."

Mac sighed, "he  _ does _ need to go on a walk…"

"Then it's settled." Dennis smiled and dropped his hand from Mac's arm, stepping away, "see you in the morning, buddy." 

"Wait," Mac said, "where are you going?"

"My- my room?" Dennis gestured towards the door.

"Oh, I thought-"

"I didn't think you wanted-"

"I mean, unless  _ you  _ didn’t want to" Mac's voice was barely more than a whisper.

Dennis paused for a moment before turning around to look at Mac; he was propped up on one arm, his eyes cast down towards his hands.

"You want me to stay?" He asked.

Mac hesitated before looking up at Dennis, "yeah."

A smile curled at Dennis' lips before he could stop it, and he crawled into bed next to Mac, lying a few inches away from him. The bed was warm, far too warm for Dennis’ liking, but there was something about Mac’s presence that calmed him down - he felt his pulse slow slightly, and his eyes beginning to grow heavy

Just as Dennis was about to fall asleep, Mac rolled over to face him, "I think Dennis Jr. would like to go to the park."

"Would he?" Dennis mumbled.

"Yeah."

The air felt a little lighter than it had before; Dennis found himself reaching out and putting an arm around Mac; Mac closed his eyes and shuffled towards Dennis, burying his face into his chest and breathing deeply.

"G'night, bro." He said, his voice muffled.

"Night, Mac."

**Author's Note:**

> thank u for reading! pls message me on tumblr or twitter, i'm @macdenniskiss on both!


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